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The Commodity Sector and Related Governance Challenges from a Sustainable Development Perspective: The Example of Switzerland : Current Research Gaps

2015 , Bürgi, Elisabeth , Wehrli, Judith , Bucher, Daniela , Rist, Stephan , Giger, Markus , Espa, Ilaria , Franzi, Simone , Elsig, Manfred , Gelb, Stephen Roy , Holzgang, Milena , Dey, Pascal , Wettstein, Florian

Abstract: The Swiss commodity sector has come under increasing scrutiny in the last few years as a result of the substantial growth experienced by global commodity trade since 2002 and the importance of Switzerland as a leading international commodity trading hub. These developments have put commodity trading squarely on the agenda of Swiss institutions and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Swiss academia has also started engaging in the debate, but faced considerable challenges in contributing to an informed dialogue due to the overall paucity of data still surrounding cross-border and transit activities of Swiss-based commodity companies active in physical and derivatives trading, and the consequent substantial gaps in existing literature as to the impacts associated with commodity investment and trading in Switzerland and in host countries. This paper aims at identifying main knowledge gaps and providing a basis for further academic research on commodity investment and trading, while informing current policy debates and decision-making processes in Switzerland. Available online: http://www.iwe.unisg.ch/~/media/internet/content/dateien/instituteundcenters/iwe/wti_cde_iwe_working_paper_july2015_the_commodity_sector_and_related_governance_challenges.pdf The factsheet that has been created on the basis of this working paper is available under: www.akademien-schweiz.ch/factsheets

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Die "unsichtbare Hand" des Wassermarktes? Zur Privatisierungs- und Wettbewerbslogik im Wasserversorgungssektor

2004 , Wettstein, Florian

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Corporate political advocacy: Exploring a new phenomenon

2012 , Baur, Dorothea , Wettstein, Florian

In this paper, we analyze an emerging problem area in CSR and the ongoing debates on corporations as political actors which we call corporate political advocacy. Advocacy denotes the phenomenon of corporations taking a stance, politically, by showing explicit and public support for certain ideals or values with the aim of convincing others to embrace them as well. An example of advocacy is Ben and Jerry's active support of a law legalizing gay marriage in Vermont. Yet, such behavior raises normative challenges: what, if any, notion of moral responsibility can account for corporate political advocacy? Under what circumstances and from what perspective can it be considered legitimate or even desirable? We argue that while advocacy shares some overlaps with existing debates on the political role and responsibility of corporations (e.g. Political CSR and Corporate Political Activity), none of these debates succeeds in making conceptual and normative sense of the phenomenon.

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Die neue "kapitale" Frage. Freier Kapitalverkehr oder Re-Regulierung der globalen Finanzmärkte?

2001-01-01 , Wettstein, Florian

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The Case against the Business Case and the Idea of "Earned Reputation"

2008 , Thielemann, Ulrich , Wettstein, Florian

"Ethics pays in the long run." This still is the mantra of most practitioners and scholars in the field of business ethics. The paper at hand questions this widely held, instrumentalist view on the relationship between "ethics" and profits on epistemological and thus fundamental grounds. We will argue, first, that the positivist search for any correlation between "ethics" and profits, in order to prove, or even to refute, the "business case for ethics", fails from the start, since "ethics" as such cannot be measured empirically. Further implicit assumptions of the "business case" are exposed and critically assessed, among them the belief that profit seeking, as such, is ethically neutral. We will show that the instru-mentalist concept of business ethics implies an opportunist attitude and ulti-mately amounts to an ethics of the right of the powerful. The paper concludes with the notion that business integrity is a necessary prerequisite for business activity - or any other activity, for that matter - to be labelled "legitimate". Moreover, integrity gives way to the possibility of a truly deserved, and justifia-bly earned corporate reputation, which in turn might form the basis for a suc-cessful business on legitimate grounds. This paper is available online free of charge. It can also be ordered as a hard copy. http://www.iwe.unisg.ch/org/iwe/web.nsf/wwwPubLiteraturAutor/FF13582FC6E2324BC12573F7005E00A1